Building a Horizontal Fence

in this video i'm going to get started on building a horizontal board on board fence here in my new commercial space the wood shed i actually broke this video into two parts because there's so much information to deliver so if a fence is on your to-do list and i hope that this helps you out let's get going actually before i get started on the process let me show you the ending results so you have an image in your head on what i'm going for as you follow along in the process total the fence is 196 feet long and ended up being eight feet high see in the back area there was a chain-link fence existing however since my bandsaw mill is back here i wanted to build a privacy fence to help block out some noise and also give my residential neighbor some visual privacy from my operations on my last board and board fence i kept my existing post and just extended them to the height needed however since i'm going with a horizontal fence i will need a post every six feet which is the length of the pickets i bought that meant i wasn't able to reuse the existing post so this project started by ripping out the existing fence and post then digging out for the new post hole locations since i have so much rock in my area i went ahead and hired this job out when comparing the cost on renting undersized equipment and how much longer it would have taken me to personally do it this is well worth the day fee to have somebody with a bobcat and large auger handle it once the holes were dug it was time to start setting posts for this entire build i am using western red cedar i absolutely love the look of western red cedar it not only has such a beautiful rich coloring to it but it's also naturally rot and weather resistant making it one of my top picks for any project going outdoors however you are not supposed to put cedar in direct contact with concrete so before putting the post in the ground i first treated the bottoms of each post with a protecting agent called copper naphthanite i think i'm pronouncing that right nap the night to speed up this process i grabbed a cardboard tube and lined it with a heavy duty trash bag then used a simple strap to secure it at an angle to the bandsaw mill's bed simple straps are stretchy and can conform to any tying pattern it's just a few quick wraps tucked the end into itself and then i was ready to go i poured two gallons into the tube and then grabbed the first post and set it in gently just making sure the corner wouldn't tear open the liner you can see when i pull it out that about three feet of the post is covered if you can tolerate the shoulder workout i definitely think a dipping method is better than brushing or rolling on the liquid but that's another great thing about western red cedar it is extremely light so while it was a shoulder workout it really wasn't all that bad after dipping a post i would set it aside and let it dry then move on to the next okay let's actually start setting the post one of the most important things to set up with a fence or anything you want straight is a string line this runs from the very end point of the fence to the start and this is set one inches forward from where the post fronts needs to end up a lot of times you see people set a string line and then butt the object directly against it however with that you run the risk of slightly bumping and altering the string line as you work down the line by having an offset you completely cut out that chance when we were positioning it we would set the face off of the string line by one inch exactly and i'll go ahead and tell you now that this fence came out extremely straight another key point to focus on with this style of fence is that the posts turn out to be exactly six feet on center with the vertical fence the posts matter but aren't as critical because the rails can be cut to the needed length but with a horizontal fence the length of picket determines where the posts are we pulled the tape on each and every hole before setting the post to make sure it was drilled in the correct location and plenty of them weren't so be sure to check we had a chisel out so many of these holes with a rock bar and shovel to get the post to not only land on the needed distance between but also the one inch off the string line once the position of the hole was good then we actually started setting the post first dumping in some river rocks to create a standoff off the bottom and keep the post from being in direct contact with the ground the idea here is moisture will pull at the bottom of these holes but the gravel will prevent the post from sitting in it and therefore being damaged from it i'll actually leave you a link below that explains it more thoroughly next the post goes in and then gets stabilized with two two by fours the first thing when the post goes in is to get the sitting position correctly this is where we'll make sure it's not only six feet from the previous pose but also one inch from the string line and then we would set the braces for one of the braces we actually used the previous post instead of driving in a stake this is held into place at the bottom with the screw and also gave us a way to square up the pose to the previous post after jake secured the bottom we would use a clamp to hold it in rough position next i would grab the second brace eyeball where it would land on the adjacent face and drove a stake into the ground to secure this other end while i was doing that you could see jake using a second clamp to hold the top up now that it was roughed in we did all of the fine tuning and this entailed using a level on two adjacent faces to plum it up we would loosen one clamp at a time and reset it when the post was plumb in that direction after being reset one of us would come back with a screw to hold it more securely while we moved on to repeat the process with the next one setting the post actually goes very quickly once the hole locations are correct if you have good ground or even just a good auger operator then the process should be a breeze it took us two days instead of one to set all of the posts because we were having to finesse so many of these by hand after they were all set up though next it was time to set them in concrete this is a pretty straightforward process each post took roughly two bags sometimes a bit more and with this many posts i definitely recommend either buying or renting a concrete mixer and this way you can pour the bags in add water from a hose and then let it take some work off your plate sometimes it was difficult to get the mixer close enough to pour into the hole without bumping into the post itself and a tip for this is you can use a shovel to catch and direct the concrete as somebody else pours it then of course you can just scoop out the last bit by hand if needed you can either tilt the mixer and drag it out or use a shovel in the traditional way and dump it in it's best to pour in enough concrete to mound up slightly past the surface of the ground then the idea is to sculpt it so that the water will want to shed away from the post itself and not pull around it to do this i actually used a putty knife to build it up at the base of the post and then sloped it down and smoothed it out after repeating on every single post and letting it sit overnight that was one of the major steps down which of course is always a great feeling now at this point the posts are just left long or tall so the next step is to cut them all to the wanted height it's at this point you can determine how tall you want your fence and make them all that measurement i personally live in the county and don't have any regulations on height so i let the shortest post of mine determine the height which came out to be eight feet since i have a transit which is a laser level system i used it to make a level mark on every single post it doesn't matter where this mark is as long as it's the exact same on each and every one if you aren't familiar with the transit a laser set on a tripod and projects out a laser in a level line then you use a handheld receiver that picks up the laser and indicates if you need to move up or down to be in line after all the posts are marked now a story stick which is just a jig essentially can be made and clamped in position to indicate where all the different cuts and marks are needed see every post will need to be cut to length but every post will also need a top and bottom rail so all of these things can be marked at the same time to not only make the process quick but also accurate i would line up my story stick to the transit mark on each post then use a pencil to mark my top and bottom marks next i started by cutting all of the posts to the same height this is done with a circular saw and two cuts on two opposite faces after getting the post to height i cut out a notch on the top of every other post which the reason why it won't make a lot of sense now but it will on the next step it was again two cuts with the circular saw to make this cut the first one was a plain horizontal cut across the face then the second cut was a vertical cut along the top end green and don't be alarmed if your blade starts smoking some just take your time on the cut because it's really hard grain to cut through i needed a bit more depth on this cut after going all the way across the post so i used a sawzall to finish off the cut on each side the posts are almost done being prepped at this point but there's one more thing needed before the rails can go in and that's hardware to have a really clean nice base the rails need to be mounted to the inside of the post so next jake went to each and every one and used a nail gun to attach the hanging hardware these rely on the bottom most mark from the story stick then are lined up flush to the front face of the post while he was doing that i was getting the measurements for each rail you can most certainly just pull a tape but i recently discovered the glories of a laser tape measure where all i have to do is hold it butted up against the start of what i want to measure and point it to the end so in this case the hardware bracket and boom it gives me the exact readout on what my measurement is the rails are two by fours again sticking with western red cedar here and cut down to the links so that they fit in the hardware placed on the inside of the post since the posts are six feet on center these turn out to be a little less than six feet each so just a tip instead of buying eight footers and having two feet of wasted material on each board about 12 footers and got two rails from one board just ending up with a few inches of wasted material on each after i cut all of the bottom rails it was a simple matter of slipping them right into place then i repeated by moving to the top however instead of going from the inside to the inside of each post the top actually spans two bays and ties three posts together which will help with rigidity and also keep things straight and this is the reason for the notch in the top of every other post it allows the 12 foot rail to go from the inside of one post pass through the second and then attach the inside of the third this slips into the hanging hardware just as easily as the bottoms so i first cut and then placed every board in their needed location then came back and did all of the attaching for the hanging hardware i used a palm nailer to very quickly dry the nails in their holes then i used a nailer to secure the top stringer in the notch of the center post okay one last step and then the substructure of the fence will be complete the pickets will be horizontal and running from one post to the other but that leaves a little less than six foot span in between to give it rigidity we next added in a center vertical support member this will give the picket a third member to attach to when they start getting added again you can definitely use a regular tape on each section to get a measurement but i used my laser tape again to make quick work of it i first found center on each bay then directed my laser straight up once i had all my measurements i made the cuts then attached each board into place with a few nails you can see i'm using a spacer there on the right to make sure the top and bottom are the same distance away from the post [Music] in my opinion that is not bad for four days especially with such rocky terrain now keep in mind that if you have a fence on your to-do list it's not going to be this difficult if you don't have rocky terrain and if your post holes are dug in the correct location by whoever you hire that job out to and i definitely do think it's worth hiring out the posthole digging itself stay tuned for part two where i show you the next steps which is going to include picketing top cap trim and then finishing out the ground area i really hope that you've learned something from this and feel inspired to go and build your own fence uh feel free to check out my other series where i've done a vertical board on board fence i'll leave you links down in the description and of course links to everything that i used in this video i'll see you on my next one [Music] thank you so much for checking out this video be sure to also check out my website because i sell lots of useful things such as these fraction to decimal charts they're not only cool shop decor but they're also functional if you're interested in getting yours you can click right here

Channel: April Wilkerson

Views: 663,257

Keywords: april wilkerson, diy, triton tools, wilkerdos, wilker dos, how to, home improvement, shop project, wood, diy project, woodworking shop, outdoor project, female builder, diy shop project, april, female woodworker, female carpenter, diy projects, woodworking project, women who build, do it yourself, how to build, woman builder, how to build a fence, horizontal fence, board on board fence, cedar fence, building a fence, privacy fence, how to build a horizontal fence

Id: I4GQCsSL9tU

Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2020